1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to an LCD (Liquid Crystal Display) apparatus, and more particularly, to an LCD apparatus having improved display characteristics.
2. Description of the Related Art
A liquid crystal display (LCD) apparatus generally includes two substrates, each having an electrode formed on an inner surface thereof, and a liquid crystal layer interposed between the two substrates. In the LCD apparatus, a voltage is applied to the electrodes to re-align liquid crystal molecules and control an amount of light transmitted through the liquid crystal layer, thereby obtaining desired images.
TFT-LCDs are now the most common type of LCDs. Electrodes are formed on each of the two substrates and thin film transistors (TFTs) are used for switching power supplied to each electrode. The TFT is typically formed on one side of the two substrates. Generally, an LCD apparatus in which TFTs are respectively formed in unit pixel regions is classified as an amorphous silicon type TFT-LCD (amorphous-Si TFT-LCD) and a polycrystalline silicon type TFT-LCD (poly-Si TFT-LCD).
The poly-Si TFT-LCD apparatus has the advantages of lower power consumption and lower price compared with the amorphous-Si TFT-LCD apparatus but has a drawback in that its manufacturing process is complicated. Thus, the poly-Si TFT-LCD apparatus is mainly used in small sized displays, such as mobile phones, and the amorphous-Si TFT-LCD apparatus, due to its ease of application to a large screen and high production yield, is applied to large sized displays such as notebook personal computers (PC), LCD monitors, high definition (HD) televisions, etc.
Recently, much research and development efforts have focused on methods for decreasing the number of steps of the assembly process for an amorphous-Si TFT-LCD apparatus, by simultaneously forming a data driving circuit and a gate driving circuit along with a pixel array on a glass substrate, similar to the assembly process of the poly-Si TFT-LCD apparatus. Other areas of research focus include methods for increasing the operational speed and resolution of LCDs, such as by operating more signal lines of the TFT-LCD apparatus within a certain time period.